On Beyond Engine Week

For decades in the high performance world, especially in muscle car circles, the last full week of April has pretty much been known as "engine week". For those of you who not familiar with this festive week that's never on any calendar, the dates from April 21st through the 30th correspond to some of the most famous big block V-8 displacements that came out of Detroit from the late 50's through the 1960's. You'll also notice that engine week is also technically longer than seven days, but we won't go there. Normally on Full Throttle, we take a historical look back at hot rods, muscle cars, as well as the golden age of drag racing mostly from the 1960's, although we have stretched the time frame going as far back as 1948 and leading up to the early 70's. This week however, we're going to focus on some rare and truly unusual muscle cars in honor of engine week.

The first date we'll focus on is April 26th; the engine - Chrysler's 426 Hemi. We'll admit that there are encyclopedia-levels of information, history, and photos of this famous big block and the vehicles the engine was put in. From muscle cars for the street, to wheel-standing exhibition drag race vehicles, the Hemi was introduced as a racing engine to dominate NASCAR (which it did) in 1964. It was quickly adapted to other types of racing, especially at the drag strip. While a street version of the Hemi wouldn't officially appear until 1966, a few scant examples squeaked through for 1965 - and not just in Super Stock trim.

Most are familiar with the factory built WO51 Super Stock versions that were built exclusively for drag racing purposes that year. The WO51 option was a lightweight version of the base Coronet 330 trim level sedan with the race Hemi between the fenders that pumped out 550-565 horsepower - and was fairly easy to spot. The grille only had two headlights as opposed to the regular production four lamps. These stripper models had non-adjustable front seats, fixed rear windows, and countless other deleted trim. On the opposite end of the spectrum, enter the 1965 Dodge Coronet 500. Bucket seats, console, and chrome trim galore. Despite the few magazine ads that slipped out, you weren't supposed to be able to get the Hemi in anything except the WO51 package. Be it by dealer or a factory assembly line goof up, a handful of Coronet 500's managed to sneak by with the Race Hemi under the loud pedal.

The next date on the agenda, April 27th; the engine - Chevy's infamous 427. Again, most enthusiasts are familiar with COPO Chevy Novas built in 1968 as well as dealer converted big block Novas sold by Yenko Chevy in York  Pennsylvania, Nickey Chevrolet based out of Chicago, as well as Motion Performance in Baldwin New York. But again, despite the "experts" best research and arguments, there are a few documented examples of 427SS Novas. According to data plates and paperwork, these Novas are not dealer converted vehicles, nor Central Office Purchase Order cars. Were they ordered as SS396 vehicles, something got screwed up, and then for some unknown reason showed up with a 427 under the hood at no extra charge? That seems to be the theory. We may never know.

The last stop on the automotive calendar is April 30th; the engine - Mercury's one year only option of their 400 horsepower 430 engine for 1958. Never heard of this? Don't feel too bad, most people haven't. It was the highest horsepower rating of any production engine during the 1950's. Based on the 430 Lincoln engine, it had high performance hardware installed throughout, including high-flow cylinder heads and triple carburetion. The kicker was, the engine was available in ANY Mercury model that year.

While most were in installed in the Super Marauder trim line, there were other examples of it being ordered in more basic trim levels, like the Montclair pictured above. These lower trim level machines were mostly purchased for drag racing purposes. Even more rare, are the dealer-modified versions of the MEL 430 V-8 that hosted a few more speed goodies that bumped the power level to 430 and even 450 horsepower respectively. However, as powerful as these engines were, quarter mile times were nothing to write home about. The best elapsed times we could stumble across were in the high 14-second area. With less than optimal rear end gearing and pathetic bias-ply tires, these animalistic Mercury's just smoked the rear hides for most of the quarter mile. In fact, one magazine reported going through a pair of tires with just a few hot laps down the 1320. One final reason why this engine was a one-year only option; it was stupid expensive and sold poorly. Still though - if you could get this barge to hook up, can you imagine the humiliation you could dish out with this rig? A cool sleeper if there ever was one - or as the advertisement stated; "The ultimate in fine car performance..."


Until next time, peace out.
Dave